The Impact of Festive Cracker Puns Influence The Brain?

"What was the price did Father Christmas's sleigh cost? Nothing, it was on the house."

This joke is met by groans that echo through a storage facility in London.

This describes a joke-testing session with a firm that produces supplies for gatherings. Its repertoire includes festive crackers.

The firm's owner smiles, almost apologetically at the joke. But the joke has made the cut and will appear in future crackers.

"The success is gauged by the joke by the volume of groans and the loudness of the groans around the table," she explains.

The key to a great Christmas cracker joke is not the identical as a stand-up gag per se. It is all about the context - in this case, the shared amusement of the holiday dinner table with grandparents, kids and potentially neighbours.

"You want the joke to be something that unites the child in harmony with the 80-year-old," she adds.

The Science Of Shared Laughter

Gathering to experience communal amusement is not only ancient, scientists argue, it is likely to be pre-human.

"Therefore when you are laughing with people around the holiday dinner you are dropping into what's almost certainly a really primordial mammalian play vocalisation," says a professor.

Shared amusement, she says, aids in make and maintain social bonds between people.

Scientists have found that a absence of such interactions can seriously harm both psychological and bodily health.

"Those you converse with, and laugh with, it leads to increased amounts of 'happy chemical' uptake," the professor adds.

Endorphins are the body's "happy chemicals" and are produced both to alleviate tension and discomfort and in reaction to enjoyable activities, such as chuckling with loved ones over a truly awful Christmas cracker gag.

"It's not simply laughing at a foolish joke with a Christmas cracker," the expert says. "You are in fact performing a lot of the really important task of building, preserving the connections you have with the people you love."

Which Occurs In the Mind?

But what is actually taking place within the brain when we listen to a joke?

An awful lot occurs in response to humour, it turns out.

Employing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a kind of brain scanner which indicates which parts of the brain are working harder, researchers have been able to map the regions that get more blood flow.

Testing involves scanning the minds of healthy participants and then subjecting them to a database of funny words, accompanied by either a non-emotional sound, or pre-recorded chuckles.

"During the study we observed a really fascinating pattern of neural activity," notes the neuroscientist.

A gag activates not just the areas of the mind in charge of auditory processing and interpreting language, but also neural regions associated with both planning and initiating movement and those involved in sight and recall.

Put these elements as a whole, and people hearing a joke have a complex series of brain reactions that underpin the laughter we experience.

The Infectious Power of Chuckles

Scientists discovered that when a humorous phrase is combined with chuckles there is a greater reaction in the mind than the same word when accompanied by a neutral sound.

"This activation occurred in parts of the mind that you would use to move your face into a grin or a laugh," the professor explains.

It means we are not just reacting to funny words, they are responding to the amusement that follows them.

Amusement, according to the professor, can be contagious.

So what does this imply for the laughter found at a holiday table?

"You laugh harder when you know others," she says, "and you laugh more when you are fond of them or care for them."

When it comes to festive cracker puns, she says, the feel-good effect is more probable to be caused not by the joke in itself, but from the response to it.

"It's the laughter. The joke is the terrible holiday cracker joke, and it's just a reason to chuckle together."

The Search for the Ideal Festive Pun

Will we ever discover the perfect joke?

Probably not, but that has not stopped experts from attempting to.

Years ago, a professor set up a scientific search for the world's funniest joke.

Over tens of thousands of gags submitted, with ratings lodged by hundreds of thousands of people globally, he has a clearer idea than many as to what works and what fails.

The ideal festive cracker joke must be short, he explains.

"But they also need to be poor gags, puns that cause us to groan," he adds.

The more "terrible" the joke, he states the more effective.

"This is because if nobody finds it funny – it's the joke's shortcoming, not your own.

"What's interesting about the holiday cracker jokes is that none of us find them humorous.

"That's a common experience around the gathering and I believe it's wonderful."